Women's cross country head coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie didn't know who Megan Sullivan was before the cross country season started. Now, she wishes she knew ten Megan Sullivans.
A freshman from Wausau, Wis., Sullivan led the women's cross-country team to arguably its finest season ever, highlighted by an all-time best fifth-place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. In a season filled surprise and drama, Sullivan was undeniably the story of a team that had more unknowns in the beginning than a calculus equation.
"I didn't know who [Sullivan] was before the season," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "I talked to her several times this summer. Other than knowing she was Megan Sullivan from Wausau, and that she had run reasonably well in high school, I had absolutely no clue who Megan was."
Now, however, Samuelson-Ogilvie should have a pretty good idea who she is. Sullivan recorded the fastest time among Duke runners in five of the six races she ran and was hampered by an ankle injury in the only race in which she did not lead the Blue Devils across the finish line.
A season which already saw two second-place finishes became even better for Sulllivan at the ACC Championships, where she recorded her first career sub-18 minute time in a 5-kilometer race. Her time of 17:55.6 paced Duke and placed her 11th overall-just short of All-ACC status.
For an encore, Sullivan closed out her season with a bang, finishing 20th overall at the NCAA District III meet on November 15. In that race, the team solidified its position as the fourth-best team in the ACC by beating Virginia. For her efforts, Sullivan was given recognition as Duke's cross country Athlete of the Year.
"I'm just very happy that everything went so well for me," Sullivan said. "It wasn't necessarily that important for me to get that kind of an award, I am really happy that all my hard work paid off, but it could've gone to anyone on the team."
Ask anyone on the team, however, and that award could not have found a better recipient than Sullivan.
"The thing about Megan is that she is one of the most humble, generous and selfless people we've ever met," junior Kim Reynolds said. "She goes out there, she's competitive, but she would never try to put herself above everyone else. She just went out there every race and did her best. She never forgot to cheer other people on. I think she's an amazing person. We look toward her as a role model."
When the season began, not only did the Blue Devils have no role model to look toward; they barely knew each other. Of the eight runners on Duke's ACC Championship roster, half of them were not even on the cross-country team last season. Freshmen Sullivan and Beth O'Donnell were still in high school, Reynolds was busy playing soccer and Kristin Faraguna was still recovering from knee surgery. And not to mention, the team ran under the direction of a new head coach.
"Every face was new to me, I did not know the women's team at all before May of the past year," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "I really had no expectations going into the season. I just wanted them to reach higher places than in the year previous. That's my goal for all the women in track and field and cross-country."
The runners sure did not disappoint, dominating their first race at the Pembroke Invitational by sweeping slots two through 13 to capture the title. Duke then reclaimed the Duke-Yale cup it had lost a year ago with a dramatic 28-31 win on Duke's East Campus.
Without a 100% healthy Sullivan, O'Donnell picked up the slack and led the team to a sixth-place finish in a field of 20 at the Notre Dame Invitational. The Blue Devils then followed that up with a fourth-place finish at the ECACs before ending the season on an upnote in the ACCs and the NCAA Districts.
"This is a very special group of women; it really is a special group of athletes," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "This group of 16 women that competed for us this year just gave everything they possibly could for the team. It is a team, despite that there's a person that comes in first and there's a person that comes in eighth. But it really has to be a team effort all the way around."
Note: The end of the season also marked the end of collegiate cross-country careers for five seniors: Kim Hay, Kim Voyticky, Colette Gurtler, Erin Fleming and Faraguna.
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